Nunes soundly defeats Aldana, retires from UFC

MANILA, Philippines – History was made. On the other hand, history was not made for another.

Amanda Nunes clobbered an overmatched Irene Aldana last Sunday, June 11, at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver, Canada in UFC 289 to successfully defend her bantamweight championship, months after she won it back from Julianna Peña. Then she promptly and shockingly retired.

"Double champ forever! Tonight is the perfect night to retire,” she bared to a surprised audience and mixed martial arts analysts everywhere. “My mom has been asking me to do this for so long. I decided right now that I'm still young enough to enjoy everything that I made. I'm from a small city in Brazil, and I made it all the way here, to become a champion."

Aldana, seeking to become the fourth Mexican to win a UFC title this 2023, stayed in the fight and went all five rounds. However, Nunes was on target all night long with her striking and takedowns as the Mexican was unable to fend off the barrage.

Nunes was declared winner by unanimous decision (50-44, 50-44, 50-43) and finished her glorious career with a 23-5-0 record. Aldana slumped to 14-7-0.

Moments after Nunes announced her retirement from the Octagon, Peña went on social media to voice her displeasure as she felt denied of a much-awaited trilogy with Nunes. Fans scored her for asking for much when she was dominated just as Aldana was in their second bout.

Just as one Brazilian retired, another made a case to challenge for the title he once held.

Former UFC lightweight champion Charles Oliveira went into a fight as the underdog in his match-up with highly skilled Beneil Dariush. 

After trying to prove his grappling skills, Oliveira went back to his bread and butter striking and with a beautiful combination of a head kick and successive right hands, he dropped and finished Dariush on the canvas in the first round. 

With the TKO victory setting him up for renewed title aspirations, Oliveira said, "The champion's name is Charles Oliveira! I needed to send a message. Last time you saw 10% of me. This time you saw 120% of me. Dana, I'm ready. This hand is heavy and I'm always ready. I don't care what people say. I know what I can do and that's what I'm going to keep doing."

Oliveira improved to 34-9-0 while Dariush dropped to 22-5-1.

The Canadian crowd was treated to a lineup of incredible fights and made it a clean sweep of 6-0, with all representatives winning their matches. 

Mike Malott completed a 6-0 night for fighters from “The Great White North” with a second-round guillotine choke submission of Adam Fugitt. Malott hiked his record to 10-1-1 while Fugitt dropped to 9-4-0.

Kyle Nelson (Ontario), Aiemann Zahabi (Quebec), Jasmine Jasudavicius (Ontario), Marc-Andre Barriault (Quebec), and Dianna Belbita (Ontario) winning respectively against Blake Bilder, Qileng Aori, Miranda Maverick, Eryk Anders and Maria Oliveira respectively. 

For the UFC 289 awards, the Fight of the Night and its $50,000 bonus went to Marc-Andre Barriault versus Eryk Anders bout with Charles Oliveira, Mike Malott, and Steve Erceg all taking the bonuses for Performance of the Night. 

UFC 289 and all UFC-related events are televised in the Philippines every week on the Premier Sports Channel on Skycable and Cignal as well as on the TapGo TV streaming application.